


Return

by Thoughtyouknewr



Series: Rebuilding the Nest [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Amara is helping this time, Can be read standalone, Chuck is trying to do better, Depressed Michael, Domestic Fluff, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Healing, Michael is just kind of done, Mostly Fluff, Post-Season/Series 11 AU, Sequel, father/son bonding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-05-26 07:49:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14996204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thoughtyouknewr/pseuds/Thoughtyouknewr
Summary: Chuck is determined that it will be different this time. He will be there for his children and guide them towards happiness. Unfortunately, the little angels have a lot of things to work through first.Technically follows Compromise, but can be read as an independent work. What happens after Amara agrees to let Chuck reform the archangels.





	1. Michael

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Supernatural. If you're reading this anywhere that you had to pay for it, it's stolen. It should only be posted on AO3, where it's free.

Michael was first. How could he not be? Michael had always been first. 

He started as a tiny spark: a ball of flickering light that Chuck could hold in one hand. He was weak and worn. Lethargic. Gone was the exultant prince, Heaven’s first warrior. He was a fracture of himself torn by Hell’s cruel flames. 

He didn’t recognize Chuck at first, which he had thought was going to be the most heartbreaking part of the procedure. He was wrong. That dubious honor went to the moment he recognized his father and turned away. 

A soft, sobbing gasp fell from his lips. “Hey there, little one,” he coaxed, gently nudging Michael back towards him with his free hand. “Does the sight of your father displease you so much?”

An exhausted sigh left Michael and he curled into himself.

It was a long time before he could be persuaded to do anything but lay fairly limp in his father’s grasp. Chuck half expected Amara to tire of these new beings before he could even finish forming them. Michael took all of his time and attention. He was afraid she would resent him for it. Far from it, she seemed concerned herself, hanging over his shoulder to prod gently at the ball of light that was his oldest son in an attempt to stir it to life. Michael simply turned away, cradled against his father’s shoulder like a sickly infant. 

An undetermined amount of time passed. A star faded. A few more were born. 

When Michael finally started to rouse himself, it was a moment of great joy, not only for Chuck, but for Amara as well. It was slow going at first. Nothing more than a little wriggling around in Chuck’s arms. Finally, he grew brave enough to venture from that safety. 

Chuck had not recreated the Heavens as they once were. It seemed like a slap in the face. Like taunting them with a fairy story of how things once were and never would be again. He would have them back, but nothing would ever erase all that had happened. 

Instead, He had drawn up a new Heaven more in the style the humans had once imagined it. Most everything was made of a fluffy, cloud-like white substance. There was still a garden, he couldn’t stop himself from creating one, but it could not have been more different from the original garden his little ones had played in. That had been orderly. Neat. Everything in it’s place, like everything else in Heaven. This was wild. Free. Chock full of completely new flora. 

The garden in the first Heaven had belonged to his archangels. They had worked, played, and slept all together in this one space. There had been no secrecy, and no need for privacy. This time he decided to give them their own rooms. He had learn much from watching humans. After all that had happened, he was sure it would give his children great comfort to have a safe place, devoid of siblings to go when they felt threatened. It was one of the many changes he intended to adapt.

This that Michael honed in on first. Chuck was afraid, for a few horrible minutes, that his oldest son would enter the room, and refuse to come back out. Or, alternatively, that the smaller, enclosed space would remind him of the cage. He had been careful with the design for both of his oldest children to make sure their rooms were open with plenty of light and several ways to get out if they wanted to. But the worry lingered in the back of his mind. 

It was a relief when Michael wandered back out shortly after entering, calm as he had been when he went in. Chuck watched over his oldest carefully as the child explore the rest of the new area, until the still healing angel tired and climbed back into his father’s lap to sleep. 

He improved steadily after that. Chuck and Amara watched happily as he regained himself. Michael would never be as he once was. He was quieter now. Less sure of himself. He clung to his father more. But he was alive, and he was healing. It was progress. 


	2. Lucifer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter assumes Lucifer died when Amara pulled him out of Cas.

It was not until Michael came to him and asked specifically about his siblings that Chuck began to gather up the shards that had once been Lucifer. 

The oldest angel was stronger now, nearly as strong as he had ever been. The trauma of his time in the cage would never completely fade, but he was a bright, curious child once more. At the human equivalent of about thirteen (which is honestly the oldest he had ever gotten; Chuck had no idea what he’d been thinking to put such responsibility on so young a child), Michael was ready to have his brothers back. 

There could be no question that Lucifer was obviously next. His two oldest sons had shared a bond that he had never really understood. Chuck had a sister in Amara, but he'd never had a brother. That seemed to make a difference, however small of one, even if it had been a familiar agony to watch them tear at each other. 

Besides, there was no point getting everyone else settled only for Lucifer to come along and disrupt the peace. It was better for the two oldest to work out their issues beforehand. 

Lucifer was more put together than Michael had been when he first stirred back into life. Michael sat on Chuck’s knee, watching avidly as his father formed his brother, but he drew back a little when Lucifer began to move of his own accord. 

The newest angel pushed himself into a sitting position and gazed confusedly around until his eyes lit on his father. 

“Oh.” He frowned. “It’s you.”

And then he promptly rolled out of the palm he was sitting on. Suspended as he was in the air, Chuck grabbed desperately for his child before he could hurt himself. Maybe it was his centuries as a human, but watching a small child take that kind of a tumble was scary. He missed his son by a hair, barely keeping hold of Michael when his oldest lunged after his brother as well. 

“And where do you think you’re going, little star?” Amara asked as she plucked him from the air. 

Lucifer gave a startled screech and struggled in her hold. Knowing his fear was well warranted, Amara deposited him quickly on Chuck’s free knee. While she had made up with Michael, Lucifer’s last memory was of her killing him. Chuck instantly wrapped a secure arm around his child, “heart” still pounding from the fear. 

“Lucifer!” Michael called, reaching out a calming hand to his still writhing little brother. 

Lucifer shrieked again and jolted backwards, cringing away. 

Michael immediately withdrew his hand, an agonized look in his eye. 

“Lucifer,” Chuck began, but his son flinched from him as well, eyes wild and face twisted with fear. “Luca,” he tried again with the more familiar name. No change. His son tried to pry his fingers open where they were clasped around the child’s waist. Michael’s hands flitted around, a need to help and for of rejection blending on his face. “Samael!” Chuck finally thundered. Both children froze instantly at the use of Lucifer’s original name. 

“What the hell do you want?” Lucifer demanded, tiny fists balling up. This form couldn’t be more than eleven and it was less threatening than the little angel might’ve desired. “I can’t do it anymore! All you do is ask and ask and ask and take more and more every single time, and I have nothing left to give!” Both fists slammed into Chuck’s chest and stayed there, followed in short order by the child’s forehead hitting his sternum. A sob tore from his son. “There’s nothing more to give,” he repeated brokenly. 

Michael rested a careful hand between his brother’s wings and rubbed in circles. 

“I ask nothing, this time, my child,” Chuck murmured sadly. “There will be no more giving. I think you’ve had quite enough of that.”

Lucifer sobbed with a violence that almost scared Michael, who looked up questioningly at Chuck. He smiled comfortingly at his oldest as Lucifer began to wail. This was a long time coming. They would weather out the storm and be better for it. 

Settling Lucifer was by no means a walk in the park. There was too much trauma, too much bitterness. Lucifer was too headstrong. Still, it was not as difficult as expected. After all he had been through, Lucifer needed rest. He was in no position to turn it down, no matter what stipulations it came with. 

It was not without bumps in the road. There was too much bad blood between Michael and Lucifer for things to always run smoothly. Their fights were…explosive. Nearly as devastating as the ones between Chuck and Amara had been. He worried, for a while, that this would be where she drew the line. She had said she could handle his children, but was that true? He was afraid the disruption to her peace would be more than she could bear. 

To his surprise, she seemed to look on their arguments almost fondly. “They take so much after us,”she murmured to him after he had finished sorting out the latest dispute and was holding two sleeping children in his arms. She ran one finger down Lucifer’s face. “I think I understand, now, why you would want to see them. As bittersweet as it must have been, they were a reminder of me, in their own way.”

“They have their own place now,” he told he quietly. “But once their similarities to us helped me fill the void that gaped whenever you left me.”

The fighting began to dwindle off, helped along by a stern hand on a small backside every now and then. Learning to get along was difficult for two brothers who had been feuding nearly as long as they could remember, but the intimacy of their infancy meant that it wasn’t impossible. 

Reconciliation between Chuck and Amara and Lucifer was also an uphill battle. The morning star had been hurt, and learning to work past that was difficult. Their relationship was by now means perfect, but it was also not as shattered as it once was. 

Michael was a warrior, but Lucifer was made for love and love forgives. It was a long and trying road, but not an impossible one. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this! Have a great day!

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so I did write more in this verse. This has been my all time worst received work, and I'd kind of like some feedback here, guys. I hope some of you like this. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and have a great day!


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